There has been so much bad news lately. From President Donald Trump posting an Artificial Intelligence generated video of a colonized Gaza to his social media to 16 UNL students losing funding to teach at impoverished schools, it is easy to feel overwhelmed.
Anyone who has been on the internet in the past ten years has probably heard the term “doom scrolling.” This refers to scrolling past terrible headline after terrible headline. It leads to a sense of “doomerism.” Doomerism is the feeling that there is nothing that anyone can do to solve the world’s problems.
It may be surprising to hear that while things may look bad now, and they are bad, things were also pretty bad in the 1960s. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, people were also inundated with the looming threat of nuclear demise at the hands of the USSR. So, while people were worried about a nuclear apocalypse, black communities were being brutalized by the police for simply trying to vote.
A few hundred years before that, Europe survived the Black Plague. Before that, humans survived the collapse of the Roman Empire. Hundreds of thousands of years before that, humans were nearly wiped out. Yet, we’re still here.
Humans have been through several terrible situations, but we have gotten through each and every one. We just have to focus on the good.
Obviously, this is easier said than done, but give it a chance.
Some good news to focus on, for example, is the “Green Amendment.” Recently, a group of young environmentalists with the Students for Sustainability gathered together to support a “Green Amendment” to the Nebraska Constitution. This would make sure companies are held liable for the chemicals that they put into the soil and water.
The Students for Sustainability is a group dedicated to mobilizing people and advocates for a more sustainable planet. They saw an opportunity to solve a problem locally, and now they have made their first steps in making Nebraska a bit more sustainable.
A bill was also introduced to the Nebraska Legislature by Senator Machaela Cavanaugh called the Hunger Free Schools Act. This act expands upon an already existing program, called the Community Eligibility Provision, which would allow students to be provided free lunches at public schools.
Despite the fact that there seems to be an endless amount of bad news, it is headlines like these that help maintain one’s mental health.
Is it necessary to watch the AI video that President Trump posted on his social media? No. Is it necessary to know every bad thing that happened at the White House today alone? Also no.
My recommendation is to focus on local politics and local headlines. Those are things that can actually be improved upon and accomplished by organizing and raising awareness. It helps to focus attention on the things that matter a little bit more than something moronic and terrible that Elon Musk said.
That being said, watching funny cat videos couldn’t hurt either.
Keep looking for the good news. It’s what will keep us sane.
